Chapter 69 Rewind Magic (1) The return of the gods is inevitable...
The encirclement formed by the black flames shrank rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it spread to Xia Ying's feet.
She instinctively took a step back, but a wall of fire rose behind her, blocking her way. Then a beast's claw emerged from the fire and grabbed her.
Xia Ying screamed as she watched the owner of the beast's claw emerge from the fire, revealing a massive, beautiful, and terrifying form.
"Good evening, little one." Typhon casually flicked Xia Ying's cheek with his sharp claws. Xia Ying quickly turned her head away, but was still lightly scratched on her cheek, leaving a bloody mark.
When Xia Ying started bleeding, Typhon's expression changed noticeably. He moved closer to Xia Ying, inhaling the fragrant scent of blood emanating from her.
“You smell delicious,” she said. “I think I can understand why Lilith and the Demon Lord seem so interested in you.”
With a flash of scythe, Typhon's claws, which were gripping Xia Ying, were severed in half. Cerberus's roar followed immediately: "Release her!!"
Taking advantage of Typhon's slight loosening of his grip due to pain, Xia Ying nimbly crawled out of her grasp. Cerberus swung the Shadow Scythe with great force, transforming it into a long whip, which wrapped around Xia Ying's waist and pulled her back to his side.
He looked down at Xia Ying and gently touched the wound on her face with his fingers. Xia Ying looked back at him and noticed that Cerberus's pupils were trembling uneasily.
Ker... is afraid.
“It’s been a long time, my children.” Typhon’s gaze swept over Cerberus and Fenrir, a gentle smile spreading across his face. “How long has it been since we were last together like this? I still remember the Nibelungen snow and the smell of ashes, how…”
She said.
"It's something to miss."
Cerberus trembled even more violently, but this time, Xia Ying sensed anger in it.
Typhon continued, "How about this, give me back that little thing, and I'll let bygones be bygones for your betrayal. We can even go back to the past..."
Cerberus gritted his teeth and said, "You won't get away with it."
Typhon stared at him with a terrifying gaze. After a long while, she gave a cold laugh and looked at her other child: "Fenrir, and what about you? What is your decision?"
The nightmare brought by Typhon left a deeper mark on Fenrir's heart. When Fenrir was captured by her gaze, he felt as if he had returned to the snow curtain that had been tainted by fire and blood long ago.
He almost couldn't resist succumbing to the gloom cast by Typhon and walking toward her side, but just as he was about to take a step, Xia Ying walked up to him.
"It's pointless to always bring up the past. I think people... and creatures of the abyss should all look forward."
Xia Ying straightened her back, trying her best to block Tyson's gaze with her body.
"I'm sorry, Typhon, but neither Cer'er nor Fenrir will ever go to your side."
"Oh?" the behemoth said with a half-smile. "I am their mother. Who are you?"
Fenrir said softly, "She is..."
"I am!!" Xia Ying said confidently, "Their new mother!"
As soon as she spoke, Xia Ying felt two pairs of eyes and four gazes converge on her from behind.
She readily interpreted it as recognition and support from her companions, and confidently said, "You understand now, no matter what you need to find them for, you have to get past me first..." "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Cerberus interrupted her whimsical remarks, walked to her left, roughly patted her head, and couldn't help but curl his lips into a slight smile.
Fenrir on the right retorted very seriously, "I have never considered you my mother."
"Oh dear, I don't mean mother in the strict sense," Xia Ying explained, "I mean in a broader, more general sense, like the atmosphere..."
"Xia Ying," Cerberus said in a low voice, "Leave this to me and Fenrir. You follow my instructions: when the time is right, run away. Don't hesitate or look back."
Seeing Cerberus's focused expression, Xia Ying swallowed the words she was about to say and simply nodded.
“Very good.” Cerberus smiled, gripping his scythe tightly. “Fenrir, go.”
Their shared understanding of each other's fighting styles created a strange tacit understanding between them. They simultaneously leaped towards Typhon, and Cerberus shouted to Xia Ying as he swung his scythe, "Now!"
The demon hound's long scythe tore a gash in the black flames, and Xia Ying raced through the gap in a split second. The flames behind her healed again, similarly concealing the battle behind her.
Just as Cerberus had said, Xia Ying ran forward without hesitation, without looking back. Not far from the finish line, she encountered another group of pursuers.
"Will this ever end?!"
This time, what blocked their way was a group of viruses that had infiltrated Cocytus beforehand. Xia Ying, somewhat devastated, raised her sword and slashed, knocking away the first few that rushed up. The enemies behind kept pushing forward, but suddenly they were blocked by a high jade wall that rose from the ground.
"!" Despite the Qilin's dashing entrance as a savior, Xia Ying couldn't help but raise her sword in front of her, wary, "You're not here to kick me when I'm down, are you?"
"If it weren't for the Demon Lord's orders, I wouldn't bother helping you." Qilin glared at her unhappily. "Alright, I'll help you block the virus, now get lost."
"Okay!"
Xia Ying turned and ran without thinking, but then she heard Qilin call out from behind, "Hey, wait!"
"Are you going to say that to me too?!" Xia Ying raised her voice as she ran. "Don't worry, I'll keep running forward and never look back!"
"I mean you forgot to get the permission!!"
A jade tablet the size of a palm flew through the air, and Xia Ying quickly turned around to catch it. The jade tablet shattered in her hand, turning into magical runes that flowed into the [Student Handbook].
"Beep! Access to the [Library] has been granted... The [Complete Key] is now available... The [Secret Room] is activating..."
Teleportation magic enveloped Xia Ying and transported her to her destination.
"Where are my hands and feet... no, where is my body?!"
After the teleportation spell was completed, Xia Ying suddenly lost control of her physical body. She tried to look around, but then discovered that she seemed to have no eyes at all!
To be precise, she was not in a physical world that could be observed visually, but Xia Ying seemed to still be able to sense some kind of energy flow happening around her, so she tried to calm her mind and explore purely with her consciousness.
She gradually sensed a vast ocean, where countless energy waves surged. Xia Ying imagined herself as a water droplet, diving into one of these currents. She slowly discovered that these energy waves were composed of runes imbued with fragments of laws, constantly shifting and changing in a strict order, creating and maintaining a vast and powerful magic with extreme efficiency.
Xia Ying's consciousness sank deeper and deeper, and more and more ocean currents flowed past her. The bits and pieces of information gathered together and gradually pieced together the essence of this great magic.
What exists here are the billions of fragments that make up Cocytus, or to put it more vividly and accurately... this is the database of Cocytus.
Xia Ying was shocked by this discovery. At the same time, she suddenly understood why the information left by Xia Kaiyun could only be deciphered here.
The storage disk was merely a carrier of rune data; the magical fragments contained within were extracted from Xia Ying's soul, completed in Cocytus's database, and translated into an image.
"Xia Ying, I knew you would arrive here one day."
Xia Ying never imagined that, after so many years, she would hear Xia Kaiyun's voice again deep within the Styx River, composed of magical data.
Xia Kaiyun's face slowly appeared. In the image, she smiled at Xia Ying, with the familiar wall and sofa in the background.
"In the moment you see this video, Lilith has already told you about our origins."
Xia Ying murmured, "You should have died long ago, so how do you know these things?"
Xia Kaiyun replied as if he had heard her voice: "This is because, as a fragment of a god, I inherited His precognitive ability, which is entrusted to His spiritual knowledge. Therefore, I saw you in the future."
Xia Kaiyun, being from the past, considerately gave Xia Ying, who was in the present, a few seconds to react before continuing, "At your point in time, Lilith plans to combine the fragments of the deity and revive it within your body."
"What will happen to me then?"
“You will become the god himself and rule the demon realm again,” Xia Kaiyun said. “If you are asking about Xia Ying… unfortunately, the personality created by the fragments will be completely annihilated when the god is resurrected.”
"In other words, I will disappear."
“That’s right.” Xia Kaiyun nodded calmly. “In my premonition, the return of the gods is an established fact…”
"Is your death also one?" Xia Ying suddenly said, her gaze fixed on the lower right corner of the image. "The box at your feet is a gift box for me, right? Is today my birthday?"
Xia Kaiyun remained silent for a while before speaking, "I thought you wouldn't find out."
“You can’t imagine how many times this day has repeated itself in my mind.” Xia Ying stared at her without moving. “So, you really knew you would die on this day?”
"I'm sorry, but this is an unchangeable fact."
Xia Kaiyun sighed helplessly and gently.
“We must get back to the main topic. Xia Ying, what I want to tell you is that you also inherited a part of the power of the gods... Unlike my ‘foresight,’ your power is ‘retrospection.’”
The "Abyss Dangerous Creatures Compendium" appeared at this moment, and the entry titled "Deity" popped up in Xia Ying's mind.
Under the entry for [Deities], a brand new skill is revealed to Xia Ying.
"You should be able to use the rewind magic now. You will now use this magic to return to the battlefield where the god died..."
Xia Ying ignored what the other person was saying and instead muttered to herself, "That's great."
In the video, Xia Kaiyun looks confused: "Xia Ying, are you listening?"
“I don’t intend to listen.” Xia Ying raised her head and replied, “You too, Tartarus too, I’m tired of you telling me what to do, as if I have to act according to your ideas.”
Across the passage of time, she smiled at her still-living mother: "I'll come find you right away, and we can talk face-to-face."
As Xia Kaiyun's expression changed, Xia Ying triggered time reversal.
She traveled upstream along the river of time, returning to a point in the distant past where "Xia Kaiyun" existed.
When Xia Ying opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a little girl who looked very much like herself.
The rewind spell was successful.
Xia Ying relaxed, and exclaimed to the little girl in front of her, "Wow! I was so cute when I was little!"
The little girl blinked: "Thank you, you're cute too."
Xia Ying, who was about to explain to her who she was, paused for a moment, and then heard the little girl say something.
"Hello, Xia Ying, I knew you would come today." She smiled shyly. "Nice to meet you. I am Xia Kaiyun, who just turned ten."
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Author's Note: Back to (Damn) Ten Years Old
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